STATE HOUSE ROUNDUP -- There arose such a clatter

By Matt Murphy STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

Monday

Dec 24, 2018 at 9:30 AM

A recap and analysis of the week in state government.

The ghosts of bills past, present and future haunted the halls of the State House last week as the House and Senate awoke from their winter slumbers, with visions of bill-signing ceremonies dancing in their heads.

First, the past.

The prospects for a short-term housing rental bill getting done seemed bleak. And Airbnb liked it that way.

More than four months had gone by since the House and Senate had their compromise Airbnb bill rejected by the governor and returned with amendments, and while leaders had not pronounced the issue dead yet, their paeans to possibility felt a tad empty.

Then came Dec. 20, and from the ashes the short-term rental bill rose with House and Senate leaders putting their own spin on Gov. Charlie Baker's change order. House negotiator Rep. Aaron Michlewitz described the new version as a pre-negotiated bargain with the Senate and administration, and though Baker did not say as much, all signs pointed to him scribbling his name to the bottom of the bill.

As requested by Baker, the Legislature agreed to exempt property owners who rent their units for two weeks or less, but stipulated that taxes on those rentals would be due for all days rented if they went even one day over the limit.

The redrafted bill also addressed Baker's privacy concerns with regard to the state registry of rental units. The public directory will no longer have street numbers attached to units, just street names, though local cities and towns could require full addresses if they choose.

In the Legislature, the collective sigh a relief from interested lawmakers whipped through the corridors, as Airbnb urged Baker to veto the bill and the let the next Legislature resume the debate, again.

The present remains a bit more complicated.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Karen Spilka appear to want to intervene in the ongoing labor dispute between National Grid and the United Steelworkers Unions that represent about 1,250 gas workers.

The two branches were in agreeement by late Dec. 21 on how to ensure unemployment benefits continue for the workers beyond mid-January, adopting the Senate's plan to charge the benefits to the unemployment insurance system rather than the House plan to require utilities, or National Grid, to pay for it.

Gas workers. whose hope of continued benefit checks had been stoked by action on separate bills in each branch, pinballed back and forth last week between the branches waiting and watching for a holiday miracle. They left the building with some hope Dec. 21.

The House was the first to act on a bill for locked out workers, and was the first this week to also take up Baker's gas safety bill, which would require an extra layer of oversight for potentially dangerous gas infrastructure.

The Senate, however, did not take up the bill Dec. 20, despite being in session until after 6 p.m., and earlier in the week Sen. Michael Barrett, who chairs the Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy Committee, described it as "not mission critical" to get done before the end of the year.

Lawmakers actually have until the morning of Jan. 2 to send Baker any legislation they would like to become law before the whole process starts over again, which explains the sudden sprouting of supplemental budgets and other bills from House Ways and Means last week.

But because Baker really has the trump (lowercase t) card this time of year, DeLeo asked for Baker to play a more hands-on role than he usually does with regard to the locked out workers to ensure that the Legislature sends him a bill he's willing to sign.

Those are today's problems. The Legislature's future problems, according to scientists, include getting more aggressive in its fight against climate change.

Sen. Marc Pacheco convened an oversight hearing in the aftermath of the release of the new National Climate Assessment that painted a dire portrait of the earth's climate.

Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton testified before the House and Senate Committees on Global Warming and Climate Change that, so far, Massachusetts has reduced its carbon emissions by 21.4 percent below 1990 levels and is on track to reach 25 percent by the 2020 deadline under the Global Warming Solutions Act.

That's would be nice, scientists said, if the goal line hadn't been moved.

Legislators were told that scientists now believe the carbon emissions must be brought down to "net zero" by 2050 to blunt the impacts of climate change, exceeding the state's current mandate of an 80 percent reduction by that time.

While updating the state's climate targets will take an act of the Legislature, Baker announced that his administration would try to tackle emissions from the transportation sector on a regional basis with seven other states and the District of Columbia.

The coalition announced an agreement Dec. 18 to spend 2019 developing a "cap-and-invest" program for transportation similar to the multi-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which sets a cap on power plants emissions. Polluters are allowed to purchase indulgences, and that money is reinvested in energy state-based energy efficiency programs.

Beaton couldn't fully debate the merits of the regional approach with lawmakers at the oversight hearing because the announcement was embargoed, but there will be time for that as Beaton, at least so far, doesn't seem to be leaving the cabinet.

Jay Ash, however, is on his way out. The economic development secretary's departure from the administration was expected, but he made it official this week. On Jan. 2, Ash will take over as the next CEO of the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership, a public policy group made up of 17 of the most-prominent business leaders in Boston that prefers to wield its power behind the scenes.

It should be an interesting role for Ash, who has outsized personality and presence on social media and vowed to continue tweeting with the media at his leaving press conference.

Baker is replacing Ash with Assistant Secretary for Business Growth Mike Keneally, a former private equity guy who decided several years ago to get into public service and wound up helping with the state's takeover-turnaround of Lawrence Public Schools.

Like Ash, Reps. Geoff Diehl and Jim Lyons are preparing for career changes after the two Republicans lost their races this November. Diehl gave up his seat in the House to run for U.S. Senate, and after failing to beat Elizabeth Warren had been mulling a run at the open MassGOP party chairmanship.

But Diehl last week decided not to seek the post, and is said to be interviewing in Washington, D.C., for jobs. With Diehl out of the race, Lyons said he would throw his hat in the ring after losing reelection to Democrat Tram Nyugen.

But Lyons will have to overcome two other competitors for the job, including MassGOP's Brent Andersen, who claimed this week to already have the votes to win, and Rep. Peter Durant, who said Andersen was bluffing.